Disney has dropped a trio of significant rule changes that guests heading to Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks and resorts will want to be aware of before arriving for their vacation. The park is restricting stroller sizes and types, eliminating smoking inside its parks, and prohibiting loose ice in coolers or cooler bags.
Smoking:
Beginning May 1, Disneyland and Walt Disney World will eliminate all smoking area inside its theme parks, water parks, the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, and Downtown Disney in California. Guests will be asked to use designated smoking areas outside the areas listed above if they want to light up.
Note that Disney Springs will continue to have designated smoking areas inside the shopping and dining district.
To be honest, with all the international visitors to its theme parks, I thought Disney would never do this. I hate walking through a cloud of smoke in the parks whenever I’m near a smoking zone, so I applaud the decision.
Loose Ice:
Starting today, those who are bringing a cooler or cooler back into the parks and water parks to store snacks and drinks can no longer use loose ice or dry ice. Instead it’s recommended you bring re-usable ice packs instead.
Once you’re in the park, you can request complimentary cups of ice for your cooler from any Quick-Service location that serves fountain drinks. Although this sounds like it would get impractical.
Strollers:
No matter where you walk through Walt Disney World and Disneyland, you’ll encounter families pushing strollers, storing them near attractions, and using them along the parade routes. Often you’ll find them used as the napping zone for kids who are tuckered out after a long day.
Disney rents strollers, but families often bring their own. Like vehicles on the road, the trend has been to bring larger and larger strollers. This has been adding to congestion in the parks and Disney has decided it needs to get things under control.
Beginning May 1, Disney will begin enforcing new guidelines on stroller sizes.
They can be no larger than 31″ (79cm) wide and 52″ (132cm) long. According to Disney, many strollers on the market, including many double jogging strollers, fit within these size guidelines.
Also, Disney has long prohibited wagons in the parks. Beginning May 1, they will extend this rule to stroller wagons. These had become very popular recently.
At Walt Disney World you can already rent a single or double stroller for each day or length of stay. Disneyland currently only offers single strollers, but is working to add a double stroller option. There are third party rental services that deliver to your resort, be sure to check that their strollers fit within Disney’s new guidelines before renting.
The general sentiment among guests visiting that parks is that they seem more crowded than ever. Restricting stroller size will certainly help a bit. Disney says, “these updates are designed to help guest flow and ease congestion, making the parks more enjoyable for everyone.”
Know before you go:
As you plan your Disney vacation, it’s a good idea to look at the rules for each destination, which are available on DisneyWorld.com/Rules and Disneyland.com/Rules.
Word have these changes have been filtering through various Disney discussion boards for a few weeks now and reaction is usually pretty mixed. How do you feel about the new stroller limits and the elimination of in-park smoking?
Excited about the elimination of smoking. Like you said, it’s not pleasant to walk past a cloud of smoke when you pass a smoking area. It’s also easier to enforce. As a former CM, it was pretty tough to tell a guest that he couldn’t smoke where he was and enforce him moving to a smoking area.
Not quite sure about the ice rule. Wonder where that came from?
Thank GOODNESS they’re getting rid of the smoking areas! I mean at least they were already mostly out of the way, but I always seem to forget that there’s one down the path from Fantasyland to Frontierland in Disneyland until I’m most of the way down that path and wind up holding my breath as I pass. I was thinking that at *least* they’d be getting rid of/moving that smoking area ahead of Galaxy’s Edge opening (since it’s pretty close to one of the entrances to the land) but I’m thrilled that it’s just going away entirely.
Hopefully the new spots outside of the park aren’t near transportation drop-off/pick-up points, though as I could see that becoming a worse problem. Especially at Disneyland as I’m currently picturing a lot of smokers lighting up by the entrance to the shuttle area (which I often wind up walking through when I go since I like to be close enough that I can walk…. hm). I don’t envy the cast members who will now have to tell people that they have to go all the way out of the park to smoke, though.
I am glad they are getting rid of the smoking section at Disneyland Every time we go thru the path my grand baby complains on how bad it smells, but I am really sadden that they are eliminating the Stroller Wagons, it has been my favorite since I got it, I have used so many different strollers including the rentals at the park in the past and my Wagon by far has been the best, my grand baby when tired just get so comfy in it with no problems, I hope that Disney will reconsider keeping the Wagon stroller. I think that unlike the strollers the wagon can be folded to take up less room when park in the selected areas, I have done it in the past with no problem to allow another stroller to squeeze in.
EXTREMELY HAPPY that Disney is doing away with smoking areas. Many people are very inconsiderate and smoke wherever they want in the parks. I hope this ban includes vaping!
Disney has made pretty good strides in relation to people abusing the handicap system. It is very sad that this even had to be addressed!
Now if they would just ban scooters! If these people cannot walk then put them in a wheelchair. All the parks are relatively flat so it would be easy for someone to push them.
Disney is working hard to improve all there parks and I applaud them!!
Comments are closed.